There's really a great deal to Philadelphia, or the City of Brotherly Love, than the cheese steak and the liberty bell. The city that Benjamin Franklin called home and helped to establish as a major cultural and commercial player during the colonial era is now the fifth-most populous in the nation, and anchor to the sixth-largest metropolitan area. There are a host of excellent neighborhoods and several reasons to find your next home in the Philadelphia area, and Homes.com is ready to help.

Save this search & be the first to know when new listings hit the market!
Philadelphia was founded by William Penn on the Southern bank of the Delaware River, initially to serve as the capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. The city did end up being the nation's capital for a brief time, and was also known during the Revolutionary War as the meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, and the site of the signing of both the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. Beyond history, the area has a great many cultural, sports, and tourist attractions, including world-class museums, a well-developed local music scene, several top-tier sports franchises, and a wide variety of other things to see and do. Philadephia's neighborhoods are organized in six geographical districts arranged around Center City, the original city of Philadelphia, with its grid patterns and traditional town squares intact. The North district, or North Philly, is home to Brewerytown, Fairhill, Strawberry Mansion, and several other traditionally African American and Hispanic neighborhoods that the city's Redevelopment Authority is actively looking to revitalize in the years to come. The Northeast district is home to nearly a third of the entire city's population. The district is home to several traditionally ethnic Irish, Russian, Italian, Polish, and German middle class neighborhoods, but has seen an influx of diversity in recent years.

The Northwest district, though small, is home to a diverse population and retains a more suburban feel than the other northern districts. West Philly is a predominately African American district that has seen some gentrification since the 1990s. South Philly is known for its neighborhoods housing large populations of Irish Americans and Italian Americans, and Southwest Philly is known for its cultural diversity, with large populations of Vietnamese and African immigrants putting down roots since the 1960s. With such a diversity of neighborhoods to choose from, you can't go wrong in selecting a home to purchase in any of the districts of Philadelphia. But, if you're not looking to purchase a new home right now but are planning a move to Philadelphia sometime soon, then why not check out the apartment selection at ForRent.com, instead?